Prototype Lake Country Hydro-tech pads - Testing, Results and Reviews

[O.C.Detailing]

Okay, so John and I received 2-each of the redesigned Lake Country Hydro-tech pads. 1-Cyan and 1-Tangerine each for a total of 4 pads.

We were asked to test them and test them hard, so today we were asked to work on a 2000 BMW 323i Station Wagon...and it's black and SERIOUSLY messed up in reference to it's paint quality as you'll see in the pictures I post in this thread.

First and foremost, here's a short video to show how I polish using my Griot's:

[video=youtube_share;CAPN4I2Oo4o]- How to polish a car[/video]

I had to stop the video because the seal of the window I was polishing under had a bunch of water stuck under it and decided that it would release and soaked my pad, but it still shows my own personal technique when it comes to polishing with my Griot's.

Some observations. I started with the Cyan pad. It started out very firm and correcting nicely. As I really got into polishing the car, the pad got softer and I started noticing that the center of the pad was creating a divot or indention. The center of the pad was MUCH softer than the outer edge but was NOT hot. It was warm, but no where near what I would consider HOT. This was after polishing just half of the hood, the driver's fender, driver's door and half of the rear driver's door. Here is a before and after picture of the pad:

Before:

After today's work:

Please notice the divot in the center.

At the end of the day, I had only cleaned the pad once and the picture above was taken BEFORE I cleaned the pad. The next photos are of the cyan pad after only half of the car next to an Orange 6.5" CCS pad after at least 5 cars worth of work and after I cleaned it at the end of the day so that it could be set up to dry:

So what I'll show you now are some photos of the condition of the car we worked on and a few 50/50 photos:

Here's a scratch that I had to wetsand out and a photo of that same area being buffed out:

Here's a photo of the hazing the Cyan pad left in the paint using the Griot's DA. It's hard to see, but look below the light and not exactly where the light is shining in the reflection:

Here's a before and after of half of the front fender after 1 pass of M105 on the Cyan:

Here's a 50/50 of that same fender, notice the heavy marring left by the Cyan pad as well:

Here is a 50/50 of the driver's door with marring after 2 passes of M105 on Cyan:

And here's a picture of the Cyan pad, again, after having been used on just half of the car and the wear that the pad is undergoing after just half of it's first car:

John has some close-up pictures of the pad and I'm sure he'll post them once he gets a chance.

In conclusion, the pad is wearing ENTIRELY too quickly for just having used it on half of a car. The foam appears to be breaking down VERY quickly in the center of the pad, but it doesn't seem to be affecting the correcting power of the pad. The center of the pad also seems to be tearing a little at a time and not at the edges, so at least with the backing taken to the edge of the pad, the tearing issue seems to be solved, but it's hard to say that after just the first use.

Please stay tuned for more as we break out the Tangerine pad tomorrow and show what happens after one use on that one as well.

 

[SouthernStyles]

Thats disappointing i am really looking forward to trying these pads but im waiting until they fix all the snags before i order.

 

[VR8]

So here's my version of the same story.

Same car, a badly damaged black BMW. Tons of water spots, swirls and bird poo etchings.

And a quick view of the pads and product. Mine have the "F" for Flex ... to eliminate confusion.

 

[VR8]

We both had success with the Cyan pads. The below 50/50 shots will show that. I personally enjoyed the pad a lot. It felt smoother over the surface than a similar cutting yellow CCS pad does, and it seemed to correct, on my Flex, with less marring. At this point I'm a happy camper with the Cyan pad.

Adam's section of the hood.

My passenger door.

Then we started to notice the concave center of Adam's pad.

At this point my Cyan pad was fine. Adam decided to wash his out with clear water I believe. You can see the slight pad wear along with the concave center.

This is my pad after finishing half of the car.

This is Adam's Cyan after finishing his half of the car.

After cleaning with APC and warm water, the pad from the Flex.

And the pad from the Griot's after it's second cleaning.

 

[VR8]

I'm sure someone has a good explanation as to what would make a pad concave like that. Hopefully Eric? I'm only speaking for myself but I didn't have a clue, other than it may have been a defective pad. My pad from the Flex showed very little wear (it was only half a car) and corrected very well. I am pleased, but mystified.

 

[WRAPT C5Z06]

Interesting how the Griot's didn't handle the pad nearly as well as the Flex 3401. VR8, did you use speed 6 as well?

 

[Rsurfer]

OCD, sorry that's your initial's...was that done on purpose? LOL I know you said the center of the cyan pad was warm, but not hot...did you remove the pad right after polishing to feel the center of the backing plate? I say this because I had basically the same problem with a 3m backing plate and a 3m Ultrafina pad that concaved because of the heat from the backing plate.

Sorry no picture of the front of the pad, but it was concaved. Doesn't seem like a pad could cave in on a flat backing plate unless there was excessive heat transfer. Just my thoughts.

 

[O.C.Detailing]

The Griot's is a much more violent machine than the Flex. The only thing that is constant with the Griot's is it's oscillations. The rotations of my Griot's are pretty much dependant on the surface I'm polishing and the products I'm using. I'm not really sure why the HT pad was wearing in the center like that though. As you can see, the CCS pad hasn't worn like that at all in all of the cars I've used it on.

One other thing that should be said, the garage we work out of was floating either in the upper 40's and lower 50's all day, so external heat and the temperature of the surface of the vehicle even after polishing only got the pad and backing plate warm and not actually hot. This can be backed up by Jonathan as I made sure he was aware of everything that was happening with my machine and pads so he could give an objective 3rd view-point. So no, there wasn't much heat.

 

[arkus]

On the 3m pad , it looked like there was a lot of heat generated .

 

[O.C.Detailing]

Rsurfer, yes, my name was set up like that on purpose. lol Jonathan and I both touched the pad and the backing plate immediately after I polished out a fairly large section of the car and it was only warm and not hot to the touch. Not only that, but I was CONSTANTLY touching the pad after buffing sections of the car once I saw the divot starting to form to see if I was generating a ton of heat.

 

[Rsurfer]

That 3m backing plate was used on the new Griots RO and like you I have no problems with the ccs pads. I have not used my HT pads on the Griot, but I've used them on a rotary with no problems yet.

 

[David Fermani]

Nice video and nice attempt at re-creating an already great pad. Answer these ? for me:

How and how often are you cleaning your pad?
How are you priming your pad?
What's your reasoning behind dabbing the product all over the panel and doing a low speed pass before going full strength.
What is your reasoning for no using more(not alot) pressure?

 

[O.C.Detailing]

Nice video and nice attempt at re-creating an already great pad. Answer these ? for me:

How and how often are you cleaning your pad?
I will switch pads after 2-3 panels or if the pad is becoming clogged with product. I would have switched to a new pad instead of cleaning if we'd received enough pads to actually switch between multiple pads.

How are you priming your pad?
I'll either spritz the pad with a body-shop safe quick detail spray or spread product into the pad using my fingers. I prefer the detail spray as it doesn't contribute to clogging my pad up with product/paint.

What's your reasoning behind dabbing the product all over the panel and doing a low speed pass before going full strength.
I dab the product on the panel and start of slow to spread product evenly over the surface of the area I'm working and it also prevent product sling causing a huge mess that I'd have to clean up later.

What is your reasoning for no using more(not alot) pressure?
I use a moderate amount of pressure. Too much tends to heat the pad and backing plate too much, puts FAR too much stress on the bearing assembly in my machine and doesn't make a huge difference in the correction as I'm relying more on the pressure for the correction than the pad/product combination I'm using.

My answers to your questions are in bold above.

 

[Rsurfer]

On the 3m pad , it looked like there was a lot of heat generated .

So much so it melted the center of the backing plate and the center of the pad. There must be a metal plate within the backing plate that the rivets hold on to and is transfering the heat to the top of the plate which in turn is transferring the heat to the pad.

 

[O.C.Detailing]

When I was working in direct sunlight my backing plate would get too hot to touch with a bare hand, but inside our garage and being so cold, the surface of the vehicles actually tends to cool the pads and backing plate since it's winter and the garage temperature floats between the 40's and 50's at full temp.

 

[David Fermani]

How do you clean your pads before going to another fresh one?

 

[Rsurfer]

When I was working in direct sunlight my backing plate would get too hot to touch with a bare hand, but inside our garage and being so cold, the surface of the vehicles actually tends to cool the pads and backing plate since it's winter and the garage temperature floats between the 40's and 50's at full temp.

I agree with you on the temp, but when the machine is working for awhile, it will generate heat. Is it enough heat to concave the pad like it did on my 3m backing plate and pad? If it was a defect in the foam then the Flex would probably have the same problem, which it doesn't.

 

[O.C.Detailing]

How do you clean your pads before going to another fresh one?

We clean with either pure luke warm water if we can, or, if necessary, we use a 10:1 APC and rinse with luke warm water until the pads are squeezing out clean water.

 

[Harleyguy]

Maybe this still goes back to what i orginal posted that the heat and water cause steam and pad failure.Maybe the product is also heating up too much and causing some form of reaction that's just a guess.Anyone who i spoke to about this failure hasn't had it happen using a rotary.

 

[O.C.Detailing]

I agree with you on the temp, but when the machine is working for awhile, it will generate heat. Is it enough heat to concave the pad like it did on my 3m backing plate and pad? If it was a defect in the foam then the Flex would probably have the same problem, which it doesn't.

The flex has forced rotation, but it doesn't spin anywhere near as fast as my Griot's does, so it probably produces less heat. Not only that, but the design of it's rotating assembly is such that there isn't a center section to product heat like a standard DA machine. It's stress is geared more towards the outer portion of the pad rather than the center like on mine. The engineering of the machine in heat dispersion is superior to the Griot's as it won't produce a focused heat area like mine will.

The thing to make sure we're remembering though is that I would check the pad and backing plate every other section or so to gauge the heat that was being generated both at the pad level AND on the backing plate itself and it was warm, but no where near hot.